Feb. 23

1938 — Joe Louis knocks out Nathan Mann in the third round to defend his world heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York.

1960 — Figure skater Carol Heiss captures the first gold medal for the U.S. in the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics.

1968 — Wilt Chamberlain becomes first player to score 25,000 points in the NBA.

1980 — Eric Heiden wins his fifth gold medal and shatters the world record by six seconds in 10,000-meter speed skating at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

1983 — Mark Pavelich of the New York Rangers scores five goals in an 11-3 victory over the Hartford Whalers.

1985 — Indiana coach Bob Knight is ejected five minutes into the Hoosiers’ 72-63 loss to Purdue when he throws a chair across the court. Knight, after two fouls called on his team, is hit with his first technical. While Purdue was shooting the technical, Knight picks up a chair from the bench area and throws it across the court, earning his second technical.

1987 — Seattle’s Nate McMillan sets an NBA rookie record with 25 assists to lead the SuperSonics over the Los Angeles Clippers 124-112.

1991 — North Carolina becomes the first team in NCAA basketball history to win 1,500 games with a 73-57 victory over Clemson.

2000 — Boston’s Marty McSorley is suspended for the rest of the season (23 games) for hitting Vancouver’s Donald Brashear in the head with his stick on Feb. 21.

2001 — Jeremy Roenick records the ninth three-goal game of his career and becomes the third U.S.-born player to reach 400 career goals in leading Phoenix to a 7-3 win over Buffalo.

2002 — The Americans end nearly a half-century of Olympic frustration for the U.S. men’s bobsled team, driving to the silver and bronze medals in the four-man race.

2006 — Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa, the 2004 world champion, stuns favorites Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina Slutskaya of Russia to claim the women’s figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

2007 — Tiger Woods’ winning streak on the PGA Tour, which began in July, comes to a shocking end. Woods fails to notice a ball mark in the line of his 4-foot birdie putt that would have won his third-round match against Nick O’Hern. Woods misses, then loses in 20 holes when O’Hern saves par with a 12-foot putt at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

2010 — Dutch skater Sven Kramer loses the gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics when his coach Gerard Kemkers sends him the wrong way on a changeover during the 25 laps of the 10,000-meter speedskating race. Kramer had not lost a 10,000 in three years.

2012 — National League MVP Ryan Braun’s 50-game suspension is overturned by baseball arbitrator Shyam Das, the first time a baseball player successfully challenged a drug-related penalty in a grievance.

2013 — Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche makes history just by stepping into the UFC cage. Rousey wins the UFC’s first women’s bout, beating Carmouche on an armbar, her signature move, with 11 seconds left in the first round of their bantamweight title fight at UFC 157.

2014 — Canada defends its Olympic men’s hockey title with a 3-0 victory over Sweden. Canada becomes the only repeat Olympic champ in the NHL era and the first team to go unbeaten through the Olympic tournament since the Soviet Union in Sarajevo in 1984.

2014 — Russia, the host country of the Winter Olympics, finishes with 33 medals overall and 13 gold. It’s the first time Russia topped both medals tables since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The U.S. wins 28 total, including nine gold.

2014 — Jason Collins becomes the first openly gay athlete in the United States four major pro leagues, playing 10 scoreless minutes with two rebounds and five fouls in the New Jersey’s 108-102 victory of the Los Angeles Lakers.

___